Various techniques have been undertaken to determine approaches involving refueling strategies and efficiencies for a variety of vehicles. An issue that may often arise with these techniques is the failure to account for important operational characteristics which can detrimentally affect the efficiency of the approach. For instance, for compliant operation, the total weight of certain regulated vehicles cannot exceed a prescribed on-highway weight which reflects a maximum load, a maximum fuel quantity and a fixed weight for the vehicle. As a vehicle travels with its load, the fuel quantity diminishes with respect to the fuel economy and distance traveled, while the load may or may not also be modified due to contents, where the truck weight (excluding fuel and freight) remains fixed. Similarly, as the fuel diminishes it is often a challenge to determine an approach to optimally refuel the vehicle while minimizing operational impacts as it may be advantageous to have lesser fuel than the maximum allowable amount in exchange to have more freight content. With such a requirement and such dynamic characteristics of operation, determining an accurate and effective refueling methodology is desired.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,553,301, to Chhaya et al, provides for a fueling approach for hybrid-style automobiles involving accumulating torque data over a prescribed period time while considering driver habit to automatically adjust the operation of a vehicle's power train based in relation to driving habits of a particular driver. More particularly, the approach “learns” a driver's habit through the accumulation of driver torque request which is then used to influence the behavior of a second driver, leading to improved efficiency goals.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,899,584, to Schricker, provides for an off-board approach involving determining a control parameter of a vehicle in relation to an operation characteristic associated with the vehicle's operation before operating the vehicle on an assigned route.
Unfortunately, each of these approaches lacks real-time, online analysis associating current circumstances and the active operation, is unable to provide remote analysis and updates, does not include real-time learning of efficiencies or account for fueling station locations, and does not manage in real-time fuel mass or provide for management efficiencies of available fuel quantities for a target vehicle during the operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,025 to Reimer provides for a system for monitoring fuel consumption and optimizing refueling of a vehicle using a mounted fuel sensor that generates a distance measurement signal indicating the distance between the sensor and the surface of the fuel in the fuel tank. A driver may then receive a message from a network-connected dispatcher identifying refueling and route information. The approach is limited for reasons similar to those discussed above and additionally as it attempts to adjust for fuel consumption as a function of trip length and vehicle weight.
Published U.S. Patent Application 20110257869A1 to Kumar, et al., provides for a multi-mode engine having relatively different fuel ratios for each mode, where a controller changes the mode of engine from one operating mode to another operating mode and ratios are adjusted in accordance. The approach provides for a first operating mode in which the engine is configured to operate with a first ratio of a first fuel to a second fuel, etc. The approach is limited for reasons similar to those discussed above and additionally as it requires multiple fuel sources to be situated in particular ratios for multi-modes of an engine to determine efficiencies.
It is therefore desired to provide a method and system for remotely determining real-time operating fuel efficiencies based on dynamic operating characteristics of a vehicle to generate an optimal refueling management approach for the vehicle which provides refueling locations and associated refueling amounts, to achieve improved vehicle fuel economy.